I think this is the fastest I’ve read any book. Wafting through the pages, dipping in and out of the beautiful food descriptions and preparations with a neat little love story tied to it.

A graphic rendition to Marcel Rouff’s 1924 book called The Life and Passion of Dodin-Bouffant, Mathieu Burnait’s adaptation is heartening read which makes you worry, cry, squeal in delight, make your heart race and leaves you with an ooooooo in the end.

A must-read for anyone who enjoys food, loves reading about food or even holds French gastronomy in the slightest of regard. I can just think a list of people who would love to read it.

Being from Calcutta, this book brings a lot of familiar places to mind. A journey of a college student finding love and herself makes for a fun light read.

Saba is an army girl out to carve an identity for herself as she steps away from home to pursue law (or her dreams) in another city. It’s about her finding love and losing it and finding it again in other places. An average life of a college girl well-blended with the topography and history of that period (1998), this book is a good read if you are into romantic fiction.

Way better than what we have around, in either case, the book is a good read.

Sensitive, warm, fuzzy, scary, painful. The entire book is a roller coaster of emotions. If you read it over days, you would want to immediately go back and start again lest you missed something in the beginning which was telling of the end.

An emotional journey of a mother searching for her daughter in a dystopian world which seems so close to reality that it’s almost disturbing. Shalini, the main protagonist of the book, takes us back and forth in a crumbling world where freedom to love, marry and live life on your terms is looked down upon. Where in the name of culture and tradition families are torn apart and live in fear of being torn apart. The entire fabric of society seems so fragile in this world that you tiptoe into the next page fearing that your ‘democratic’ world isn’t suddenly destroyed.

At times you feel is this where your country is eventually headed to with all that is going on in terms of moral policing or do you think better sense will prevail. I certainly wouldn’t want to live in a world where Shalini, Laila and Riz can’t be together, but you need to read the book to find out more.

All in all, it’s a must read and I promise you it’s not disappointing.

The book which began as a simple college love story turns into something so intense that it kept me up all night wanting to know more. If you look at it from a different perspepctive, the book is about the life of an addict and her struggle to break out. She fails miserably and so do the people around her trying to help.

A sense of helplessness, guilt and inability to do anything but wait and watch is what keeps you on your toes. A light read despite being based on a serious plot, the book is simply unputtdownable.

There is something about reading children’s books as an adult. You begin to wonder where did all those simple emotions of love, hate, anger, frustration go and when where they replaced by the grey ones, the doubt, the mistrust…

A sci-fi novel, A Wrinkle in Time, is fun, imaginative and very relaxing to read when you are shrouded with work. The concepts shared by the author is timeless and is definitely a must-read given the current world we live in. The explanation of the concept of equality is so beautifully simplified that you feel that why do we as adult complicate every basic notion.

If you are in the mood for something different, pick up this book and you won’t be disappointed.

My review may be biased as I prefer the Mahabharat epic to the Ramayana of which she is a part. I found her characterisation uniteresting and unrelenting when compared to a Menaka in Menaka’s Choice or an Urvi in Karana’s Wife. But like I said it could be my bias towards the epic; the reason why I’m yet to read Sita’s Sister.

Surpankha or Meenakshi reminded you of someone who is beyond reason and needed a moment of catharisis to even consider a different viewpoint. It reminds you of a lot of the younger generation today who think the world is out to get them and fail to even consider or notice that the people who care are only looking out for them. As such this fast-paced book will appeal to certain lot of people but failed to leave me behind with something.

Worth a read if you are looking for a different point of view for the known epic.

Like this:

Seven tight stories. Each equally haunting. Deftly written by Meghna Pant, The Trouble with Women is a must read for who like their stories slightly dark and real. Meghna takes very obvious situations which women in India can usually relate to and portrays them with a removed eye.

You can almost feel the character’s anger, pain, guilt or stress as may the case be. You feel frustrated at Bilal for the way he treats his wife and daughters, you get Zoze for his heartlessness, you are anxious about what will happen if Nikhil finds out and if Sahil’s sister actually goes ahead with what’s going on in her head. You are pained by what Sexy puts herself through to feel liberated and angry at Paalan’s father for the way he treated his mother and definitely you feel sorry, really sorry, for that young girl who has to use her femininity to rise the corporate ladder despite her talent.

The trouble with woman actually is we think and feel too much and this short collection of stories makes you go through a myriad of emotions in a short span of few days. Each story is way too heavy to read one after the other. And you need that time to think, argue and calm your mind before reading the next one. The book is available on the Juggernaut app and is conveniently priced.

Contrary to perception that nothing can replace a physical book, reading on the app is pretty user friendly with the only irritant being the scroll. If a message or an email needs to be answered while reading, it’s a task to switch without losing your line. Other than that, all is well.

Do scroll through the book and let me know what you felt about it in the comments below.